Tungstosilicic acid functionalized glass filter membrane for radiocesium sequestration

Activities related to nuclear energy result in introduction of fission products and actinides in the natural resources. Radiotoxicity associated with these makes continuous monitoring of radionuclides essential in the environment for the health and safety aspects. In the environment, wherever an ultratrace level of these radionuclides is present, direct determination with routinely used instruments is difficult. Hence the detection and quantification step needs to be preceded by separation and preconcentration steps, where the radionuclide is extracted from other elements present in bulk and is then preconcentrated to give a measurable analytical signal. Radiocesium is one of the important fission products which is likely to be present in places close to nuclear facilities. To separate fission product ¹³⁷Cs from milk, urine, seawater, and environmental samples at ultratrace concentration, the tungstosilicic acid has been immobilized in alkoxy silane grafted glass fiber filters by sol-gel method